Clothing of the 50’s

I keep hoping 50s fashions will come back in style. Women looked like women and not starving refugees or sex-trafficked teenagers looking for a john. Fifties style showed off women’s hourglass figures without showing off a lot of skin. Dresses were mid-calf full skirts, belted waists (where waists naturally are) and fitted bodices often buttoned-up to the collar. Less is more, they say. And that can be true in fashion. A woman can be more alluring by NOT letting it all hang out. Sorry if I’m offending anyone, but I’m downright embarrassed when I see a girl who leaves ribs and belly-button bare for all to see and a blouse so low I worry the “girls” will fall out if she stumbles in her platform shoes. Children often make astute observations. My grand-daughter gaped when she little. “That girl has a butt on her chest!” Yep. That just about describes the look.

Men in the 50s wore jackets, slacks and belts and tuck-in-button-up shirts with collars and ties, and looked polished, intelligent, and classy. I can’t wait until boys give up wearing pants that hang so low you can see their colored underwear, which is, I guess, the point. Wow! Look at my undies! Are they sexy? No. I heard on “The Doctors” that those low-hung pants rest on – and damage — nerves that will later make young men impotent. Maybe if teachers shared that bit of information in sex ed classes, the boys would start pulling their pants up.

Given a choice, I’ll take Audrey Hepburn flats over six inch stilettos any day. Who was the misogynist who came up with this fashion, anyway? Is he related to whoever it was in China who came up with binding feet? Maybe the idea is to keep women off balance.

A friend who loves high heels said she had to “break in” her feet for over a year before the pain stopped. I’ll have to ask if that means she can only walk on tip-toe when barefoot.

I can run in flats! I can walk on cobble stones without getting stuck! Wise women do shed their pretty mile-high heels and tuck them into (large!) purses when they really want to get somewhere. The only comfortable activity for high heels (imo) is sitting at a desk.

When I asked my mom why she kept a pair of old platform high heel shoes from the 30s, she said, “Styles come back into fashion all the time.” She was right.